This call is our first official Movement for a People’s Party (MPP) national conference call. As a result of last week’s election, the establishment Democrats are feeling vindicated. Ralph Northam, newly elected governor in Virginia, is a conservative Democrat who twice voted for George Bush. Recently, he announced that he would sign a bill to ban sanctuary cities in his state. New Jersey’s governor-elect, Phil Murphy, is a former Goldman Sachs executive. In both states’ Democratic primaries, the Democratic Party successfully worked to eliminate the progressive candidate. They are already putting Blue Dog Dems into 2018 races. They have spent millions of dollars in shutting down progressives. They are saying loud and clear that ‘we don’t need progressives’. We are saying loud and clear that we need a people’s party more than ever!

Our MPP field organization is gearing up for the challenge. We have begun coalition building in several states. To form coalitions, it just takes that first step of meeting someone and building a relationship. We are encouraging all of you to take that first step. Please visit our new website for more coalition building information and documents.

Washington D.C. — The American progressive movement is reeling from the back-to-back revelations that the 2016 Democratic primary was thoroughly rigged and that the party purged Sanders supporters from the DNC. The past few weeks have made clear a conclusion that progressives have long fought to avoid: there is no path to power inside the Democratic Party.

As the Democratic Party shuts the door on progressives, Gallup shows that more Americans are calling for a major new party than ever before. A large majority of Americans now want an alternative to the Democrats and Republicans. In just five years, support for a new party has jumped from 46 to 61 percent. There are already far more independents than Democrats. But now even most Democrats are saying that their party does “such a poor job that a major third party is needed.”

It is in this turbulent political context that Draft Bernie for a People’s Party is launching its next phase: Movement for a People’s Party (MPP).

Launched in February by Sanders campaign staffers, delegates and volunteers, Draft Bernie quickly grew into a major national organization at the helm of the rapidly growing movement for a new political party. Tens of thousands of working people broke with the Democratic Party and joined Draft Bernie’s call on Sen. Sanders to create a genuinely progressive party. Draft Bernie’s articles and interviews have spanned dozens of mainstream and independent publications reaching millions of people.

Thousands of passionate volunteers across every state have hit the streets and social media to speak to fellow progressives about starting a people’s party. Leading Sanders campaign surrogates including renowned public intellectual Dr. Cornel West and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Josh Fox have joined the movement. Many others, including National Nurses United head RoseAnn DeMoro and Our Revolution President Nina Turner, have also supported the call for a people’s party.

When Draft Bernie was founded, few progressives were talking about starting a new party. In just a few months, Draft Bernie has flipped the script and the idea of building a people’s party has gone viral. Sen. Sanders holds out hope that the Democratic Party can be reformed, but the American people have made their preference clear.

Draft Bernie built tremendous grassroots support for a people’s party and now MPP will assemble that support into a coalition of working people, unions, progressive organizations, and community groups that can collectively launch a nationally viable people’s party. Across the country, MPP members will build the coalition for a people’s party one conversation at a time. The momentum is on our side as each passing day makes it clearer that the Democratic Party has no interest in representing its overwhelmingly progressive base.

Tuesday’s Gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia reinforced the need for a new party as a former Goldman Sachs executive was elected in New Jersey and a fiscal-conservative who voted for George W. Bush twice won in Virginia. Both men were Democrats who represent the rightward shift in a party that is running billionaires in states like West Virginia, Illinois and Florida. The Democratic establishment will interpret the election results as a vindication of neoliberalism and a license to continue business as usual. Working families will suffer as the Democratic Party continues to chase Trump and the Republicans further to the right.

A new party that supports free public college, universal health care, a living wage, higher taxes on the wealthy, getting big money out of our elections, and much of Sanders’ 2016 platform, will give Americans a party to vote for and inspire millions back to the polls. MPP is well on its way towards that goal.

Public anger and frustration has reached a boiling point and neither major party is giving voice to policies that would alleviate the hardship that working people face. Last year, voters in both major parties tried to nominate presidential candidates who weren’t truly members of their party before the election. They succeeded on the right and were blocked on the left.

The revolution against establishment politics is not limited to the United States. Anti-establishment parties are rising across Europe. The two parties that have dominated French politics for decades, the Republican and the Socialist parties, were overtaken by two new parties in this year’s presidential election. Spain’s two -party system split into four parties in 2015. In Greece, Syriza overtook the country’s establishment parties and elected a prime minister.

The major parties are crumbling. The question is not whether there will be a new party in America. The question is what will the new party stand for and who will offer the country the alternative it so desperately craves? Will it be a right wing populist party, the kind that Trump, Bannon and Mercer foreshadow? A new neoliberal party masquerading as third way, the kind that French elites used with Macron? Or will progressives come together to offer working people a genuine alternative? asked Brana. “There is a new political reality in America. If progressives don’t offer an alternative that fills the anti-establishment void, someone else will, just like Trump did last year,” he said.

The majority of Americans are progressive and want a new party. However, progressives are fragmented into hundreds of organizations and numerous parties, which forces them to compete for supporters, volunteers, donors, and voters. That prevents them from building the critical mass of resources and support for a new party. Draft Bernie popularized the idea of starting a people’s party. The Movement for a People’s Party will unite that support into a coalition for a nationally viable progressive party.

MPP national director Nick Brana was the national political outreach coordinator on Sander’s presidential campaign. He was also a founding member of Our Revolution and its first electoral manager.

Nick discussed Donna Brazile’s brazen attempt to sell her book by hopping on the progressive train and trying to absolve her own participation in the rigged Democratic Party primary. Every part of this is outrageous. Despicable. The admission of fraud, the new lies to obscure deeper lies, the abdication of Brazile’s responsibility for the fraud, the opportunistic timing designed for Brazile’s personal profit and to justify her DNC Rules Committee appointment. All of this offers further proof that we need a third party now.

In further support of that narrative, our guest speaker, Juan “Charlie” Mercado discussed his run for Congress as an independent (NPP) against a corporate Democrat in San Diego’s 51st congressional district. A veteran, Charlie has a particular interest in bringing back to the US veterans who have been deported. Those who risk their lives for our country and their families should have automatic citizenship.

As always, reach out to progressive groups such as Our Revolution (OR) and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) by attending their meetings and forging connections toward our goal of a people’s party.

On this week’s call we shared our experiences with coalition building thus far. More and more groups are coming around to the idea of working from outside the Democratic Party. That is why Nick asks that if you come across a group seriously interested in joining our coalition, send their contact information to organize@draftbernie.org and we will set up a Skype meeting. Alternatively, you can submit your recommendations for coalition partners and supporters via this form.

Nick discussed the fact that confidence in our institutions is at an historic low and declining. A new party is inevitable, the question is, what kind of party will it be? Will it be a right wing populist party, the kind that Trump, Bannon, and the Mercer family foreshadow? Or a new neoliberal party masquerading as Third Way, the kind that French elites used with Macron? Or will progressives come together to offer working people a genuine alternative? There is a new political reality in America and the stakes are immeasurably high. If progressives don’t offer an alternative that fills the anti-establishment void, someone else will, just like Trump did last year.

On this week’s call, Nick discussed the fall meeting of the DNC and their purging of progressives and appointing lobbyists. This gives us an opportunity to go on social media to remind people again that the Democratic Party’s topdown structure and dependence on corporate money make the creation of a major new party even more imperative. Share, post, tweet, and retweet away this weekend!

Carolyn discussed her planned coalition event around voter suppression and Daniel told us about his experiences at his local Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) meeting. Make a plan this week to go to an Our Revolution (OR) or DSA meeting in your area and make some friends.

This week, we rolled out our Coalition Building Guide to help us identify and contact groups in your area who might be interested in joining our coalition. It is chock full of useful information to help us carry out the new phase of our movement! You can check out the coalition guide below the audio player, or right click here to save it to your computer.

On the call, Nick discussed our current political climate and why it important to build a true populist coalition to promote our policies. Lezlie and Eve discussed approaching Our Revolution chapters in their areas, Daniel outlined some tips for organizing and coalition building, and Carol talked about attending and talking to people at conferences.

On the call, we talked about everyone’s contributions to a people’s party platform of principles. Between thoughts expressed on last week’s epic conference call and ideas emailed to us this week, we’ve received well over 100 suggestions! Continue sending them in.

As we begin our coalition building phase, we’ll need more leaders to organize and train volunteers. Let us know if you’d like to sign on! Thank you for joining us as we begin our movement for a progressive party that serves the interests of the people.

Coming off the successful Convergence Conference in Washington D.C., Nick Brana and Myrna Lim discuss Nick’s organization’s next steps in helping to organize a major new party that recent polls show the progressive majority of Americans want.

On Thursday, September 28, we had our 29th weekly call. As we go into the next phase of organizing, coalition building toward a people’s party, Gallup is reporting the highest numbers yet, 61% of people in favor of a new political party.

We have the momentum to follow in the steps of other movements like the UK’s Labour Party to return to our populist roots away from the destructive neoliberals. The brainstorming session that took place on this call provided a good start on a name and statement of principles for this next phase of our movement. Stay tuned… this is getting very exciting!

The call was long so we’ve broken the recording into two parts. Be sure to listen to both.